AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 2. May 2021 Pp. 18-38 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no2.2 Conceptual Metaphors in Milan Kundera’s Novel, Life Is Elsewhere Sara Mechraoui Independent Researcher, Indianapolis Indiana, USA Email: [email protected] Received: 4/10/2021 Accepted: 5/16/2021 Published: 5/24/2021 Abstract This study's primary purpose is to account for the unstated interpretation of Kundera's novel Life Is Elsewhere (1973) from a cognitive stylistic perspective. His style seems at the first plain, but his philosophical and psychological treatment of subjects is significantly necessary than the narratological world he creates. The identification of the conceptual metaphors and both mega and micro-metaphors constitute the core elements of this paper. Following the title of life as elsewhere metaphor, the metaphors used in the novel are identified in the selected passages based on the metaphoricity they display. Thus, the procedure used is informed by the Metaphor Identification Procedure University Amsterdam since it is strategic and feasible. Excerpts from the novel are selected instead of the whole text for reasons of scope and space. The study's findings are supposed to open up areas for research on the effects of metaphor-based analysis on working out the meaning of difficult contemporary items as far as literary dictum is concerned. Keywords: Conceptual metaphors, cognitive linguistics, Milan Kundera, Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam, Life Is Elsewhere. Cite as: Mechraoui, S. (2021). Conceptual Metaphors in Milan Kundera’s Novel, Life Is Elsewhere. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (2) 18-38. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no2.2 Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 18 ISSN: 2550-1542 |www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 5 Number 2. May 2021 Conceptual Metaphors in Milan Kundera’s Novel, Life Is Elsewhere Mechraoui Introduction In language theory, words have both denotative and connotative meanings. The denotative meaning is equal to the meaning given literally to the word. It is usually mentioned at the top list of dictionary definitions and refers to concrete objects in the outside world. However, the connotative meaning comes after some inferential analogies by the reader to arrive at the semantic interpretation in particular contexts. Metaphoric expressions can be interpreted differently according to the user’s linguistic competence. Hence, a native speaker of the English language finds it more comfortable to grasp the metaphoric connotation of words. Still, the processes that a non-native speaker takes to arrive at the inferential meaning are proved to be essential to the acquisition of metaphoric competence. Metaphors provide a rich and diverse repertoire of interpretations; they can be spelled out as lexicographic units or foregrounded in texts' socio-cultural context. Given the ample philosophical and linguistic research literature that pushes metaphor theories to the forefront in recent studies, there is no general approach to reader construction of meaning therein. Philosophers adapted an objectivist view of the two metaphors, which coincides with the traditional literary criticism theories. Among others, the Neo-historicist and the Historicist approaches. In that very fact, metaphor analysis spread from a rhetorical line of research. That is, metaphors were seen as comparative constructs between two, unlike things. The comparison is built and affected by the context in which the two words are used. However, the philosophical discussions of metaphor were restricted to the comparison between lexemes rather than to the conceptual operation behind the use and comprehension of metaphors. Therefore, a more linguistic and conceptual investigation came out after the publication of Lakoff&Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By (1980). Though the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor opened-up new avenues to read and understand literary texts, there is still much to offer in literary theory and communicative cultural competence. This line of research is motivated and based on the cognitive analysis of conceptual metaphors in literary discourse. Proponents of the new cognitive linguistic account of literary analysis look for the general guiding principles of metaphor generation at the lexical level. In contrast, cognitive psychology studies what the human mind does upon the production of metaphors, personifications, metonymies, and allegories in literary discourse. CP links both Cognitive Psychology and CL to provide an all-encompassing paradigm of research. Traditional classifications of metaphor components led to divergent views on the latter to draw demarcating lines between the literal and the metaphorical. Further, what is compared, how it is reached, on which grounds the comparison is made, and their production norms were the primary concern of metaphor research. In the next part, the theoretical background under which this study is based is provided. Literature Review A linguistic account of metaphor During communication, people resort to a host of metonymies and analogies to transmit messages to the listener or the reader. In both its graphic and phonic forms, language remains the salient means of communication; however, at times, one cannot express himself openly or become Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 19 ISSN: 2550-1542 | www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 5 Number 2. May 2021 Conceptual Metaphors in Milan Kundera’s Novel, Life Is Elsewhere Mechraoui paralyzed with language. In such cases, metaphors and metonymies are the only options. Metaphors are part and parcel of any language. Although some counterclaims devote much attention to the whole linguistic items, including metonymies, similes, and analogies, metaphors remain essential to understanding literary, scientific, political, and religious discourses, among others (Lakoff&Johnson 1980; Johnson 2007). Metaphors can be used spontaneously as part of daily speech or used creatively depending on the context of occurrence. Lakoff & Johnson (1980) label the salient conventional metaphors as universally-shared between human beings due to their experiential basis. An example is an equation given by Lakoff&Johnson (1980), up/down, forward/backward that come out of spatial orientations. However, the more conscious and rhetorical use of the metaphorical expression is restricted to poets and rhetoricians. To illustrate, the widely researched metaphor found in Shakespeare’ Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is the sun or the more complex metaphors that prevail in Emilie Dickenson’s Cocoon poem explained in the next section of the paper. Defining metaphor Metaphor definitions are varied. Different approaches have been used to provide a thorough investigation of metaphor components or analyze the constituents of comparison or analogy. One of the dictionary definitions of metaphor reads as follows, “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not applicable (1)”. However, the word metaphor's origin transcends that of the literal level to a mental transfer of meaning. Metaphor is derived from the Greek word, “(…) meta meaning after, behind, beyond with pherin meaning to bear, to carry or to bring” (Grundmann, 2009, p.7). The definitions above provided fertile hypotheses on which traditional and contemporary analysis of metaphors built their claims. Whereas the comparison view of metaphor seeks to explain the similarities between the two things or people compared, the substitution view looks at how a term is substituted for the other. Proponents of the interaction view, on the other hand, claim that comparison involves an interaction between two thoughts that are active together in the human brain. Important to mention is Richards’ (1936) cognitive treatise of metaphor. The latter coincided with the widespread interest in Semantics. Rather than taking words as the principle part of a metaphor, their contextual conditioning is emphasized. The meaning of a sentence can be achieved by separating the whole into its components. From words to the higher level of language, sentences or metaphors are better understood according to the context in which they appear. In ‘Achilles is a lion’ two contexts are at work; however, only certain qualities of a lion are shared with those of Achilles according to the context. Two concepts are involved in meaning: (1) a word in itself covers recurrent groups of events, its own private contexts, through which it acquires meanings of which a dictionary gives a sampling; and (2) the present setting of the word, both words which surround it in the utterance (as cited in Russo, 1989, p. 253). The comparison view opposes the traditional dyad of one word, meaning that every word has a proper sense. It is instead the surrounding context that establishes different meanings. Further, by comparing one thing to another, the missing parts of the context will be filled. A word gains Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 20 ISSN: 2550-1542 | www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 5 Number 2. May 2021 Conceptual Metaphors in Milan Kundera’s Novel, Life Is Elsewhere Mechraoui different meanings by the interaction of two contexts that are present during metaphor creation. Richards put stress on the comparison between two things through an adjunction.